tempus fugit

Hummingbirds at the Feeder

2018-02-17

Hummingbirds are gathering at the feeder on my porch now. They start coming as soon as it gets light, and they stay all day. They come and go, spending more and more time at the feeder– sometimes as long as thirty seconds or more. Some of them are drab and grayish color, others have iridescent red patches on their throats, heads, and chests. They chase each other around and around the bare branches of the trees. They chirp and twitter angrily at one another.

When they drink at the feeder, they are fearless; I can stand next to it and, if I hold still, they will continue to come and go as if I were a rock that happened to be there. Standing there, I can see their throats rise and fall as they drink the nectar. I can’t be sure, but it seems as if they particularly like the new type of nectar. It has trace elements like calcium and vitamin A, and a flower coloring is used to make it red. I could be imagining things thinking that they like it better, but they certainly are drinking a lot of it.